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Friday, June 7, 2013

Rune masters IV

Friedrich Marby



Friedrich Bernhard Marby (10 May 1882 – 3 December 1966) was a German rune occultist and Germanic revivalist. Father of usage of Rune postures, runic yoga. He is best known for his revivalism and use of the Armanen runes row. Marby was imprisoned during the Third Reich, which may have been due to a denunciation by Karl Maria Wiligut. According to the Odinist magazine Vor Trú, issue 69, Marby "was one of the most (if not the most) important figures in the realm of runic sciences" with an impact felt not only by contemporaries but "among today's researchers and practitioners."

Biography

Born in Aurich, Ostfriesland, Friedrich Marby was trained as a printer and served professionally as an editor. He developed a set of occult exercises he called "runic gymnastics" as a means of "channeling runic power and forms through and around the self". From 1924, he began publishing his theories and research.
There was a school of rune scholars who interpreted the Eddas completely in anti-Semitic fashion, but Alan Baker in his book Invisible Eagle singles out Marby as one of the exceptions. Marby, along with Siegfried Adolf Kummer, was criticized by name in a report made to Heinrich Himmler by his chief esoteric runologist, Karl Maria Wiligut. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke states that Wiligut censured them "for bringing the holy Aryan heritage into disrepute and ridicule", suggesting "this criticism may have led to Marby's harsh treatment in the Third Reich."
According to Vor Trú, Marby spent 8 years and 3 months in the camps at Flossenbürg, Welzheim, and Dachau before being released on 29 April 1945. He resumed publishing his magazine Forschung and Erfahung (Research and Experience) and books. He died in 1966.
Marby's "runic gymnastics" (Runengymnastik) was advocated as "Rune-Yoga" (also "Runic Yoga", "Stadhagaldr") by Stephen Flowers ("Edred Thorsson") from the 1980s.

Works

An den Quellwurzeln unseres Seins
Die aufschlußreiche Pendeluntersuchung
Der germanische Einweihungsweg in Sinnbildern und Symbolen
Die drei Schwäne
Der Weg zu den Müttern
Runenschrift
Runenwort
Runengymnastik

Siegfried Adolf Kummer



Siegfried Adolf Kummer (born 1899, date of death unknown) was a German mystic and Germanic revivalist. Father of the Rune Dance, the inspiration to all others, one of the first. He is also most well known for his revivalism and use of the Armanen runes row. He, along with Friedrich Bernhard Marby, were imprisoned during the Third Reich for being unauthorised occultists.

Biography

Little is known of his life or of his fate in the wake of the events of the Nazi era.
Kummer, along with Friedrich Bernhard Marby, were criticized by name in a report made to Heinrich Himmler by his chief esoteric runologist Karl Maria Wiligut. Goodrick-Clarke states that they were "censured by Wiligut in his capacity as Himmler's counsellor on magical and religious subjects for bringing the holy Aryan heritage into disrepute and riducule and this criticism may have led to Marby's harsh treatment in the Third Reich."  But what his fate was is unknown. At least one report has him fleeing Nazi Germany in exile to South America.

In 1927, Kummer founded a "runic school" called Runa, associated with the summer schoolBielatal Bärenstein of Georg and Alfred Richter. The runic exercises, comparable to the "runic gymnastics" of Marby, runic dancing and runic songs were taught. Kummer held that
"As a we now can receive various waves by means of a radio device, so the German by means of runic exercises and dances can regulate the influx of invisible ethereal cosmic waves. Those who dismiss this as impossible will never be able to detect thought waves, because they are in disharmony with the cosmic All, and are impeded by racially foreign blood."

Written works
Heilige Runenmacht (1932)
Runen-Magie(1933)
Runen - Raunen: Eine Sammlg eingesandter Berichte nach d. Runenkunden
Walhall



Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Rune Masters III

Friedrich Wannieck


Friedrich Wannieck (1838 Brno, Austrian Empire –1919) was a prominent and wealthy Austrian/German industrialist most notable for his successful business ventures and his enthusiastic support for the völkisch author, pioneer of Germanic mysticism and runicrevivalist, Guido von List. He is the father of Friedrich Oskar Wannieck.
He was an Armanist and supporter of List's Armanen runes system. He was also an ardent spiritualist and a firm believer in the Theosophical mahatmas, Morya and Koot Hoomi

Biography

Wannieck founded Friedrich Wannieck & Co. in 1864. He was also chairman of the Prague Iron Company and the First Brno Engineering Company, both major producers of capital goods in the Habsburg empire. He was also president of the organisation and publishing house Verein "Deutsches Haus" ("German House" Association) in Brno. This was a nationalistassociation for German inhabitants of the city, who knew it by the name of Brünn and felt encircled by the overwhelming Czech population of South Moravia (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 37).
In 1888 the Verein "Deutsches Haus" published an historical work entitled Der altdeutsche Volksstamm der Quaden [The Ancient German Quadi Tribe] by Heinrich Kirchmayr. Wannieck was impressed by the parallels between List's clairvoyant account of the Quadi and the academic study of Kirchmayr. Between Wannieck and List there developed a regular correspondence that laid the basis of a lasting friendship. The Verein "Deutsches Haus" later published three of List's works in its own book-series of nationalist studies of history and literature (ibid.).


Wannieck's munificence eventually led to the foundation of the Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft(Guido von List Society) twenty years later. Around 1905, he and his son Friedrich Oskar were among the signatories to the initial announcement endorsing the formation of the Society. This came to fruition with an official founding ceremony in 1908. The Society's assets came mostly from the Wanniecks, who put up more than 3000 crowns at the inauguration (ibid., 43-44).

Monday, June 3, 2013

Rune Masters II

Anders Celsius



Anders Celsius (27 November 1701 – 25 April 1744) was a Swedish astronomer. He was professor of astronomy at Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744, but traveled from 1732 to 1735 visiting notable observatories in Germany, Italy and France. He founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in 1741, and in 1742 he proposed the Celsius temperature scale which takes his name. The scale was inverted in 1745 by Carl Linnaeus, one year after Celsius' death from tuberculosis.

Life

Early life

Anders Celsius was born in Uppsala, Sweden on 27 November 1701. His family originated from Ovanåker in the province of Hälsingland. Their family estate was at Doma, also known as Höjen or Högen (locally as Högen 2). The name Celsius is a latinization of the estate's name (Latin celsus "mound").
As the son of an astronomy professor, Nils Celsius, and the grandson of the mathematician Magnus Celsius and the astronomer Anders Spole, Celsius chose a career in science. He was a talented mathematician from an early age. Anders Celsius studied atUppsala University, where his father was a teacher, and in 1730 he too, became a professor of astronomy there.

Career

In 1730, he published the Nova Methodus distantiam solis a terra determinandi (New Method for Determining the Distance from the Sun to the Earth). His research also involved the study of auroral phenomena, which he conducted with his assistant Olof Hiorter, and he was the first to suggest a connection between the aurora borealis and changes in the magnetic field of the Earth.He observed the variations of a compass needle and found that larger deflections correlated with stronger auroral activity. At Nuremberg in 1733, he published a collection of 316 observations of the aurora borealis made by himself and others over the period 1716–1732.

Celsius traveled frequently in the early 1730s, including to Germany, Italy, and France, when he visited most of the major European observatories. In Paris he advocated the measurement of an arc of the meridian in Lapland. In 1736, he participated in the expedition organized for that purpose by the French Academy of Sciences, led by the French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698–1759) to measure a degree of latitude. The aim of the expedition was to measure the length of a degree along a meridian, close to the pole, and compare the result with a similar expedition to Peru, today in Ecuador, near the equator. The expeditions confirmed Isaac Newton's belief that the shape of the earth is an ellipsoid flattened at the poles.

In 1738, he published the De observationibus pro figura telluris determinanda (Observations on Determining the Shape of the Earth). Celsius' participation in the Lapland expedition won him much respect in Sweden with the government and his peers, and played a key role in generating interest from the Swedish authorities in donating the resources required to construct a new modern observatory in Uppsala. He was successful in the request, and Celsius founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in 1741. The observatory was equipped with instruments purchased during his long voyage abroad, comprising the most modern instrumental technology of the period.

In astronomy, Celsius began a series of observations using colored glass plates to record the magnitude (a measure of brightness) of certain stars. This was the first attempt to measure the intensity of starlight with a tool other than the human eye. He made observations of eclipses and various astronomical objects and published catalogues of carefully determined magnitudes for some 300 stars using his own photometric system (mean error=0.4 mag).

Celsius was the first to perform and publish careful experiments aiming at the definition of an international temperature scale on scientific grounds. In his Swedish paper "Observations of two persistent degrees on a thermometer" he reports on experiments to check that the freezing point is independent of latitude (and of atmospheric pressure). He determined the dependence of the boiling of water with atmospheric pressure which was accurate even by modern day standards. He further gave a rule for the determination of the boiling point if the barometric pressure deviates from a certain standard pressure.He proposed the Celsius temperature scale in a paper to the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala, the oldest Swedish scientific society, founded in 1710. His thermometer was calibrated with a value of 100° for the freezing point of water and 0° for the boiling point. In 1745, a year after his death, the scale was reversed by Carl Linnaeusto facilitate more practical measurement.Celsius originally called his scale centigrade derived from the Latin for "hundred steps". For years it was simply referred to as the Swedish thermometer.
Celsius conducted many geographical measurements for the Swedish General map, and was one of earliest to note that much of Scandinavia is slowly rising above sea level, a continuous process which has been occurring since the melting of the ice from the latest ice age. However, he wrongly posed the notion that the water was evaporating.

In 1725 he became secretary of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala, and served at this post until his death from tuberculosis in 1744. He supported the formation of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm in 1739 by Linnaeus and five others, and was elected a member at the first meeting of this academy. It was in fact Celsius who proposed the new academy's name.

Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík


Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík (Jón Ólafsson frá Grunnavík, also known as Jón Grunnvíkingur or Grunnavíkur-Jón, 1705 – 1779) was an Icelandic scholar. Originally from Grunnavík, Westfjords, northwestern Iceland, he was active in Copenhagen, where he served as assistant to Árni Magnússon.
He is the author of an Icelandic dictionary and a 1732 Runologia, a treatise on runology. As in the fire of Copenhagen of 1728, the original manuscript of the Heiðarvíga saga was lost along with a recent copy made by Jón Grunnvíkingur, he wrote down a summary of the saga from memory, which is the only form in which the saga's contents survive today.
The character of Jón Grindvicensis in Halldór Laxness's historical novel Iceland's Bell is based on Jón Grunnvíkingur.

Wilhelm Grimm


Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl 24 February 1786 – 16 December 1859) was a German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm.

Life and work
He was born in Hanau, Hesse-Kassel and in 1803 he started studying law at the University of Marburg, one year after his brother Jacob started there. The whole of the lives of the two brothers was passed together. In their school days, they had one bed and one table in common. As students, they had two beds and two tables in the same room. They always lived under one roof, and had their books and property in common.
In 1825 Wilhelm married a pharmacist's daughter; Henriette Dorothea Wild, also known as Dortchen, at age 39. Wilhelm's marriage in no way disturbed the harmony of the brothers. As Richard Cleasby said, “they both live in the same house, and in such harmony and community that one might almost imagine the children were common property.” Together, Wilhelm and Henriette had four children: Jacob Grimm (3 April 1826–15 December 1826), Herman Friedrich Grimm (6 January 1828–16 June 1901), Rudolf Georg Grimm (31 March 1830–13 November 1889), and Barbara Auguste Luise Pauline Marie (21 August 1832–9 February 1919).

Wilhelm's character was a complete contrast to that of his brother. As a boy he was strong and healthy, but as he grew up he was attacked by a long and severe illness, which left him weak all his life. His was a less comprehensive and energetic mind than that of his brother, and he had less of the spirit of investigation, preferring to confine himself to some limited and definitely bounded field of work; he utilized everything that bore directly on his own studies, and ignored the rest. These studies were almost always of a literary nature.
Wilhelm took great delight in music, for which his brother had but a moderate liking, and had a remarkable gift of story-telling. Cleasby, in the account of his visit to the brothers quoted above, relates that “Wilhelm read a sort of farce written in the Frankfort dialect, depicting the ‘malheurs’ of a rich Frankfort tradesman on a holiday jaunt on Sunday. It was very droll, and he read it admirably.” Cleasby describes him as “an uncommonly animated, jovial fellow.” He was, accordingly, much sought in society, which he frequented much more than his brother.

From 1837-1841, the Grimm Brothers joined five of their colleague professors at the University of Göttingen to form a group known as the Göttinger Sieben (The Göttingen Seven). They protested against Ernst August, King of Hanover, whom they accused of violating the constitution. All seven were fired by the king.
Wilhelm Grimm died in Berlin of an infection at the age of 73.

Guido von List



Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List (October 5, 1848 – May 17, 1919) was an Austrian/German (Viennese) poet, journalist, writer, businessman and dealer of leather goods, mountaineer, hiker, dramatist, playwright, and rower, but was most notable as an occultist and völkisch author who is seen as one of the most important figures in Germanic revivalism, Germanic mysticism, Runic Revivalism and Runosophy in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and continues to be so today.
He is the author of Das Geheimnis der Runen (The Secret of the Runes), which is a detailed study of the Armanen Futharkh, his intellectual world-view (as realised in the years between 1902 and 1908), an introduction to the rest of his work and is widely regarded as the pioneering work of Runology in modern occultism.

Biography

Guido von List was born in Vienna in the Austrian Empire to Karl Anton List, a prosperous middle class leather goods dealer, and Maria List (née Killian). He grew up in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna. Like the majority of his fellow Austrians at that time, his family was Roman Catholic, and he was christened "Guido Anton List" as an infant in St Peter's Church in Vienna on October 8, 1848.

In 1862 a visit to the catacombs beneath the Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna) made a deep impression, and List regarded the catacombs as a pagan shrine. As an adult he claimed he had then sworn to build a temple to Wotan when he grew up. This he recounted in volume 2 (page 592-593) of his book Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilder:
It was in the year 1862 - I was then in my fourteenth year of life - when I, after much asking, received permission from my father to accompany him and his party who were planning to visit the catacombs [under St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna] which were at that time still in their original condition. We climbed down, and everything I saw and felt excited me with a kind of power that today I am no longer able to experience. Then we came - it was, if I remember correctly, in the third or fourth level - to a ruined altar. The guide said that we were now situated beneath the old post office (today the Wohlzeile House No. 8). At that point my excitement was raised to fever pitch, and before this altar I proclaimed out loud this ceremonial vow: "Whenever I get big, I will build a Temple to Wotan!" I was, of course, laughed at, as a few members of the party said that a child did not belong in such a place… I knew nothing more about Wuotan than that which I had read about him in Vollmer's Wörterbuch der Mythologie.

Despite these artistic and mystical leanings, Guido was expected, as the eldest child, to follow in his father's footsteps as a businessman. He appears to have fulfilled his responsibilities in a dutiful manner, but he took any and all opportunities to develop his more intense mystical and naturesque interests. The trips that List had to make for business purposes gave him the opportunity to indulge his passion for hiking and mountaineering. This activity seems to have provided a matrix for his early mysticism.

His father died in 1877 when List was 29 years old. It appears that neither he nor his mother had his father's keen sense of business, and as economic times became difficult List quit the family business to devote himself full time to his writing, at this time still of a journalistic kind.

During this time List wrote articles for newspapers, such as the Neue Welt (New World), Neue deutsche Alpenzeitung (New German Alpine Newspaper), Heimat (Homeland), and the Deutsche Zeitung (German Newspaper), which dealt with his earlier travels and mystical reflections on the Loci (land spirits). Many of these written newspaper articles were anthologised in 1891 in his famous Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilder. He also had articles appear in the Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung and on a regular basis in the newspaper Ostdeutsche Rundschau (East German Review), owned by the powerful publicist and parliamentary deputy Karl Heinrich Wolf. At this time he also came to know well Georg von Schönerer, a leading political figure and Pan-German member of the Imperial Parliament.

He also had many articles appear in periodicals such as Laufers Allgemeine Kunst-Chronik, Der Sammler, Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert, Die Gnosis, Der Deutsche, Neue Metaphysische Rundschau, Die Nornen, Österreichische Illustrierte Rundschau andJohannes Balzli's occult magazine Prana.
In 1878 List married his first wife, Helene Föster-Peters. However, the marriage was not to last through this difficult period.

Through the years 1877–1887 List was also working on his first book-length (two-volume) effort, Carnuntum, an historical novel based on his vision of the Kulturkampf between the Germanic and Roman worlds centred at Carnuntum around the year 375 CE that was published in 1888 by the Wannieck family's organisation and publishing house Verein "Deutsche Haus" ("German House" Association) in Brno, where List made the acquaintance of the industrialist Friedrich Wanniheg. This association was to prove essential to List's future development.

Throughout this period in List's life he devoted himself to writing more neo-romantic prose, such as Jung Diethers Heimkehr ("Young Diether's Homecoming") in 1894 and Pipara in 1895. An anthology of his earlier journalism Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilderwas published in 1891, and List developed his writing skills in poetic and dramatic genres as well.

In 1892 he delivered a lecture on the ancient Germanic cult of Wuotan to the Verein Deutsche Geschichte (German History Association), and it is said that numerous other associations allied with this one proliferated in Austria at this time. Another group, theBund der Germanen (Germanic League), sponsored a performance of List's mythological dramatic poem, Der Wala Erweckung ("The Wala's Awakening") in 1894. In another performance of this drama in 1895, which was attended by over three thousand people, the part of Wala was read by Anna Wittek von Stecky, a young actress who in August 1899 became List's second wife.
During the years 1888–1899 List was involved with two important literary associations. In May 1891 Iduna, which had the descriptive subtitle of "Free German Society for Literature", was founded by a circle of writers around Fritz Lemmermayer. Lemmermayer acted as a sort of "middle man" between an older generation of authors (which included Fercher von Steinwand, Joseph Tandler, Auguste Hyrtl,Ludwig von Mertens, and Josephone von Knorr) and a group of younger writers and thinkers (which included Rudolf Steiner, Marie Eugenie delle Grazie, and Karl Maria Heidt). The name Iduna was provided by List himself and is that of a North Germanic goddess of eternal youth and renewal. Richard von Kralik and Joseph Kalasanz Poestion, authors with specifically neo-Germanic leanings, were also involved in the circle. The other organisation List was involved with was the Literarische Donaugesellschaft (Danubian Literary Society), which was founded by List and Fanny Wschiansky the year the Iduna was dissolved in 1893. At this time List met Rudolf Steiner and Lanz von Liebenfels but his association with Liebenfels did not develop until Lanz had left the Heiligenkreuz monastery in 1899.
In August 1899, List married Anna Wittek von Stecky.

Mountaineering

In 1871, List's writing talents were given full rein as he became a correspondent of the Neue deutsche Alpenzeitung ("New German Alpine Newspaper"), later called the Salonblatt. He also began to edit the yearbook of the Österreichischer Alpenverein (Austrian Alpine Association), of which he became secretary in that year.

List was an ardent, enthusiastic mountaineer and hiker. On one of these adventures List came very close to losing his life. While climbing a mountain on May 8, 1871 in the Großes Höllental (Larger Valley of Hell) leading up to the Rax mountain in Lower Austria, a mass of ice gave way under his feet and he fell some distance. He was apparently saved only by the fact that he had landed on a soft surface covered by a recent snowfall. In memory of his good luck and to help others, at his own expense List had the track equipped with a chain put up and officially opened by him on June 21, 1871. It was also named (now calledGaislochsteig) after him the "Guido-List-Steig"
On June 24, 1875, List was camping with four friends near the ruins of Carnuntum. As the 1500th anniversary of the Germanic tribes' defeat of this Roman garrison in 375, the evening carried a lot of weight for List. Carnuntum became the title of List's first full-length novel, published in two volumes in 1888. After its success, it was followed by two more books set in tribal Germany; Jung Diethers Heimkehr ("Young Diether's Homecoming", 1894) and Pipara (1895). These books led to List being celebrated by the pan-German movement. Around the start of the 20th century, he continued with several plays.

Nobility and title

Between 1903 and 1907, he began using the noble title von on occasion, before finally settling on it permanently in 1907.

Death

In late 1918, the 70 year old List was in poor health during the final stages of World War I in which the naval blockade of the Central Powers created food shortages in Vienna.
In the spring of 1919, at the age of 71, List and his wife set off to recuperate and meet followers at the manor house of Eberhard von Brockhusen, a List society patron who lived at Langen in Brandenburg, Germany.

On arrival at the Anhalter Station at Berlin, List was too exhausted to continue the journey. After a doctor had diagnosed a lung inflammation, his health deteriorated quickly, and he died in a Berlin guesthouse on the morning of May 17, 1919. He was cremated in Leipzig and his ashes laid in an urn and then buried in Vienna Central Cemetery, Zentralfriedhof, in the gravesite KNLH 413 - Vienna's largest and most famous cemetery (including the graves of Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Strauss.) in Vienna's 11th district of Simmering.
Philipp Stauff, a Berlin journalist, good friend of List and Armanist, wrote an obituary which appeared in the Münchener Beobachtercalled "Guido von List gestorben" on May 24, 1919,


Runic revivalism

The row of 18 so-called "Armanen Runes", also known as the "Armanen Futharkh" came to List while in an 11 month state of temporary blindness after a cataract operation on both eyes in 1902. This vision in 1902 allegedly opened what List referred to as his "inner eye", via which he claimed the "Secret of the Runes" was revealed to him. List stated that his Armanen Futharkh were encrypted in the Hávamál (poetic Edda), specifically in stanzas 138 to 165, with stanzas 146 through 164 reported as being the 'song' of the 18 runes. It has been said this claim has no historical basis.
The Armanen runes are still used today by some Ásatrú adherents who consider the Armanen runes to have some religious and/or divinatory value.

Futharkh spelling

List noted in his book, The Secret of the Runes, that the "runic futharkh (= runic ABC) consisted of sixteen symbols in ancient times.".
As a side note to this, in the English translation of the work, Stephen Flowers notes that "(the designation futharkh is based on the first seven runes it is for this reason that the proper name is not futhark -- as it is generally and incorrectly written -- but futharkh, with the h at the end; for more about the basis of this, see the Guido von List Library number 6, The primal language of the Aryan Germanic people and their mystery language)".

Hexagonal Crystal and the Armanen Runes

List's system was allegedly based on the structure of a Hexagonal Crystal. You can shine light through a crystal at different angles and project all 18 of the Armanen runes.
List's rune row was rather rigid; while the runes of the past had had sharp angles for easy carving, his were to be carefully and perfectly made so that their shape would be a reflection of the 'frozen light', a pattern that he had found in his runes. All of his runes could be projected by shining the light through a hexagonal crystal under certain angles. Rune Hagal is so-called 'mother-rune' because its shape represents that hexagonal crystal.
Karl Hans Welz states that the "crystalline structure of quartz is the "hexagonal system" which is also one of the bases of the Runic symbolism (the hexagon with the three inscribed diameters)." and that "The hexagonal cross section of quartz and the fact that all of the 18 Sacred Futhork Runes are derived from the geometry of the hexagon is the basis of an enormous increase in crystal power when it is associated with Rune images."

Influence

Guido von List Society

A look at the signatoriesof the first announcement concerning support for a Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft (Guido von List Society), circa 1905, reveals that List had a following of some very prestigious people and shows that List, his ideology and his influence had widespread and significant support, including that amongst public figures in Austria and Germany. Among some 50 signatories which endorsed the foundation of the List Society (which had an official founding ceremony on March 2, 1908) were the industrialist Friedrich Wannieck and his son Friedrich Oskar Wannieck and Karl Lueger (the mayor of Vienna). These supporters also included occultists such as Hugo Göring (editor of theosophical literature at Weimar), Harald Arjuna Grävell van Jostenoode(theosophical author at Heidelberg), Max Seiling (an esoteric pamphleteer and popular philosopher in Munich), and Paul Zillmann (editor of the Metaphysische Rundschau and master of an occult lodge in Berlin)


List's influence continued to grow and attract distinctive members after the official founding of the society in 1908. From 1908 through to 1912, new members included the deputy Beranek (co-founder of the "Bund der Germanen" in 1894), Philipp Stauff (a Berlin journalist and later a founding member of the Germanenorden), Franz Hartmann (a leading German theosophist), Karl Heise (a leading figure in the vegetarian and mystical Mazdaznan cult at Zürich), and the collective membership of the Vienna Theosophical Society.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Rune Masters I:


Johannes Bureus



Johannes Thomae Bureus Agrivillensis (Johan Bure) (1568–1652) was a Swedish antiquarian, polymath and mystic. He was royal librarian, tutor, and adviser of King Gustavus Adolphus ofSweden. Bureus was born in 1568 in Åkerby near the famous city of Uppsala (where the largest and last of the pagan temples has been) in Sweden as a son of a Lutheran parish priest.
Bureus combined his runic and esoteric interests in his own runic system, which he called the "Adalruna". He was interested in the Rosicrucian manifestos. Contemporary mystics such as Jakob Böhme have studied his works.
In 1611 he published the first ABC book in the Swedish language, Svenska ABC boken medh runorusing the runic alphabet and latin script. He also wrote a genealogy of Bure family, partly using runestones as sources.

Olaus Rudbeck



Olaus Rudbeck (also known as Olof Rudbeck the Elder, to distinguish him from his son, and occasionally with the surname Latinized as Olaus Rudbeckius) (September 13, 1630 – December 12, 1702) was a Swedish scientist and writer, professor of medicine at Uppsala University and for several periods rector magnificus of the same university. He was born in Västerås, the son of Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius, who was personal chaplain to King Gustavus Adolphus, and the father of botanist Olof Rudbeck the Younger. Rudbeck is primarily known for his contributions in two fields: human anatomy and linguistics, but he was also accomplished in many other fields including music and botany. (He established the first botanical garden in Sweden at Uppsala, called Rudbeck's Garden, but which was renamed a hundred years later for his son's student, the botanist Carolus Linnaeus.)

Human anatomy
Rudbeck was one of the pioneers in the study of lymphatic vessels. According to his supporters in Sweden, he was the first to discover the lymphatic system and is documented as having shown his findings at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden in the Spring of 1652. However, he did not publish anything about it until the fall of 1653, after Thomas Bartholin, a Danish scientist, had published a description of a similar discovery of his own. (For other early discoverers of the lymphatic system, seeGasparo Aselli and Jean Pecquet).
Rudbeck's research led to the Queen's support of his career. To facilitate his studies of human anatomy, he had a cupola built on top ofGustavianum, a university edifice, and in it was built an arena-like Theatrum anatomicum, where dissection could be carried out in front of students. The cupola still remains and is a landmark in Uppsala. The "Gustavianum" stands in front of the cathedral, and is still part of the university.

Historical linguistics
Between 1679-1702, Rudbeck dedicated himself to contributions in historical-linguistics patriotism, writing a 3,000-page treatise in four volumes called Atlantica (Atland eller Manheim in Swedish) where he purported to prove that Sweden was Atlantis, the cradle of civilization, and Swedish theoriginal language of Adam from which Latin and Hebrew had evolved. His work was criticized by several Scandinavian authors, including the Danish professor Ludvig Holberg, and the Swedish author and physician Andreas Kempe, both of whom wrote satires based on Rudbeck's writings. His work was later used by Denis Diderot in the article "Etymologie" in Encyclopédie as a cautionary example of deceptive linking of etymology with mythical history.

David King, in his biography of Rudbeck, notes that he developed a system for measuring the age of old monuments and graves by the thickness of the humus accumulated over them - which, though many of his conclusions were erroneous, anticipated the methods of modern archaeology and was far in advance of most historians and antiquarians of his time.

Despite the criticism targeting his linguistic theories and despite the priority dispute with Bartholin, Rudbeck remained a national icon in Sweden for many years. His son, Olof Rudbeck the Younger, continued his linguistic work and also became involved in providing an "intellectual reason" for power during a period when Sweden aspired to a position as one of the great powers of Europe. Rudbeck the Younger added speculations about the relationship between Sami and Hebrew languages to his father's long list of fantastical linguistic relationships. A nephew of Olaus the Elder, Petter Rudebeck, also wrote antiquarian books going even further, purporting to locate the scene of the Trojan War and ancient city of Troy in southern Sweden.
The above-mentioned David King noted that, while specific conclusions of father and son Rudbeck about the relationships of various languages to each other were disproven, they anticipated the later systematic study of Indo-European Languages, and the scientific proof that languages distant from each other geographically and historically are indeed related.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

TEIWAZ


TEIWAZ

27th of February - 14th of March



Alternative Names
Tiwaz, Tir, Tyr, Teiws, Tiw.
Key Phrase
‘Now is the time to make use of
the skills and wisdom you have acquired.’
Meaning
Tyr (Warrior God),  the Tyr Rune, fatherhood, the arrow, a spear point.
Viking Rune Equivalent and Meaning
Warrior.  The Norse warrior god Tyr; Victory in battle; A guiding light.
Divinatory Meaning
Initiation
Corresponding Letter
T
Associated Colour
Bright Red
Associated Herb
Sage
Associated Gemstone
Coral
Associated Tree
Oak
Associated Myths and Deities
Sacred to Tyr -  Lord of the Heavens and war-leader, the Fenrris Wolf; Odin’s ordeals.

Manifestation Uses
For strengthening the will; healing a wound and for strength and protection; victory; success;   judgement and matters of law;  decisions or guidance.  Teiwaz can be invoked to heal any curse or ailment that has been wrongly placed upon you.
Relationship Interpretation
Combined strength and authority.  There is work to be done together and it will only be achieved together.
Healing Colour and Qualities
Brown.
Excellent to aid gout and rheumatism in combination with the Isa rune.
Talisman
Worn as a talisman, Teiwaz protects the material surroundings, brings victory, strengthens the will, and helps to heal wounds.

Teiwaz Drawn Upright

Keywords

Order, self-sacrifice, a voluntary sacrifice, stability, lawfulness, justice, courage, honour, morality, duty, discipline, responsibility, glory,  strength, conflict, a wound, leadership and authority, rationality, victory, success in a legal issue, protection, a protective amulet, knowing your personal strengths, steady, reliable, optimism, faith, analysis, the Pole Star, the vault of the Heavens.

TEIWAZ is ‘Order’.

The Teiwaz rune is the first rune of the third Aett. It is the seventeenth rune in total. Teiwaz is the rune of the god Tyr. Tuesday was named after him.  It is a rune of justice and order.
Like the warrior god Tyr, the Teiwaz rune represents inner strength, morality and honour.  In Norse mythology and cosmology, the god Tyr’s sacrifice of his hand to allow the binding of the Ferris Wolf, was a noble one.  Tyr is noted for his sense of duty and ethical responsibilities, in contrast to the pantheon of deities who are not concerned with such. The Teiwaz rune symbolises all qualities associated with the god Tyr, including strength, heroism, duty and responsibility.  It is said that Teiwaz is 'Tyr’s Rune'. Tyr is believed to be one of the oldest of the Norse gods and his position may well have originally superseded that of Odin.
The Teiwaz rune is one of the oldest runes in the Elderfuthark, having remained virtually unchanged from the earliest Bronze-age rock carvings, and it’s meanings and implications remain true.  Teiwaz focuses the attention and forces discipline. Embodied in this rune is the energy of discrimination.  It is one of courage and dedication.

The Teiwaz rune is phallic in shape and contains the embodiment of masculine energy, which resides in both men and women.  The qualities of Teiwaz are often exerted and looked for in men moreso than women, as a way of measuring and judging them.  Teiwaz, the rune, is one of fatherhood and all that it entails.
The arrow of the Teiwaz rune represents going straight to the source, or the heart of things.  It shows hitting the bullseye on the target and shooting straight.
This rune gives one the ability to remain objective and judge in fairness.  It also gives the potential for handling conflicts positively.
The Teiwaz rune symbolises new challenges and initiations into new understandings.  It represents voluntary sacrifice made by someone who understands exactly what they are giving up and why.
When the Teiwaz rune is drawn in a reading, it is telling you that there is a need for fearlessness as your victory is already assured if your heart remains true.  It is also a time to make use of all the skills and wisdom you have learned so far in this lifetime. 
You are warned to protect your faith, as it will be challenged.  Remember, the truth will always be victorious in the end.
If Teiwaz is drawn in a reading, rest assured that justice will prevail.

Norse God: Tyr


Tyr is the ancient god of War and the Lawgiver of the gods. The bravest of the gods, it is Tyr who makes the binding of Fenrir (Myth 7) possible by sacrificing his right hand. At one time he was the leader of the Norse Pantheon, but was supplanted by Odin much later.
Tyr also seems to be a god of justice. His name is derived from Tiw or Tiwaz an Tacticus and other Roman writers have equated this character to Mars, the receiver of human sacrifice. His day is Tuesday.
Tyr was the son of Odin though in Myth 17 he is made out to be the son of the giant Hymir. Like Odin, he has many characteristics of the earlier Germanic gods of battle. Parallels in other mythologies along with archaeological discoveries relating to a one-handed god, suggest that this character is very old and was known in Northern Europe somewhere between one and two thousand years before Snorri Sturluson included it in his Prose Edda. Similarities can be found in the one-handed Naudu in Irish mythology and in Mitra, just god of the day, of Indian mythology.


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Runology


Runology



Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets, Runic inscriptions and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics.

History

Runology was initiated by Johannes Bureus (1568-1652) who was very interested in the linguistics of the Geatish language (Götiska språket), i.e. Old Norse. However, he did not look at the runes as just an alphabet but rather something holy or magical.

The study of runes was continued by Olof Rudbeck Sr (1630-1702) and presented in his collection Atlantica. The physicist Anders Celsius (1701-44) further extended the science of runes and travelled around the whole of Sweden to examine the bautastenar (megaliths, today termed runestones). Another early treatise is the 1732 Runologia by Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík.

The various runic scripts were well understood by the 19th century, when their analysis became an integral part of the Germanic philology and historical linguistics. Wilhelm Grimm published his Ueber deutsche Runen in 1821, where among other things he discussed the "Marcomannic runes" (chapter 18, pp. 149-159). In 1828 he published a supplement, titled Zur Literatur der Runen, where he discusses the Abecedarium Nordmannicum.

Sveriges runinskrifter was published from 1900. The dedicated journal Nytt om runer has been published by the "Runic Archives" of the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo from 1985. The Rundata project, aiming at a machine-readable catalogue of runic inscriptions, was initiated in 1993.

*In the net few days we will pay honer to ancestors and great Rune masters by creating the articles about them, at least short ones who introduce them to you! 

Monday, March 4, 2013

Stàdhagaldr


Stàdhagaldr


Stadhagaldr - runic yoga, as it is being called occasionally - was being developed by Friedrich Bernhard Marby, during the twenties and thirties of the 20th century. Thus being a modern invention, it has no historic roots. Plagiarists developed this technic further in the thirties to fifties (here to mention: Kummer, Gorsleben, Spießberger). They used the fictive Armanen-futhork of List. During the last years Runic gymnastics is being developed further by various authors. 

In accordance to many authors I can confirm that the runic postures are bioenergetic antennas which receive the various energies, symbolized by the runes. Tests with the pendulum during runic gymnastics showed an expansion and charging of the individual aura as well as an extensive radiation. The posture receive cthonic and celestial energies, thus activate and vitalize body and mind. This energy is also necessary to fullfill magical goals. 

Performing runic gymnastic creates an anchor for the runes in the individual aura and body. Then the runes have the possibility to become organic and find realization and earthening within yourself and your surroundings (if you allow this to happen). Just like in the Asanas of yogic traditions, the runic postures (stöður) have more goals, as mentioned by Edred Thorsson:
  • Control of the body
  • Control of thoughts
  • Control of Breath
  • Control of Emotions
  • Anchoring of the Rune
  • Mastering of the Will

    Stadhagaldr can be practiced at any location and time you have in mind. However, obviously there are differences between various times, locations and personal preparations when and how you are practicing runic staðas. Runic yoga are more powerful outside in the fields or forests then in closed rooms. During the morning-dawn it is more intense then at the evening. Naked it is better then with clothes. Another point of importance is the direction in which you are heading during the practice. Oriented within the geomagnetic field heading north or south (in Australia) or heading west or east, using the inductory orientation. Heading NE, SW, SE, NW generates hybrid experiences. When you are practicing outside, the nature often reacts surprisingly! It makes a difference, whether you are bannishing before and afterwards or not. Consult Thorssons writings regarding proper intro rituals. 

I used a small observance for anchoring the runes in my auric field. For twentyfour days I practiced all twentyfour runic postures (breathing each one twelve times), and each day a different rune was dominant and being studied in as much ways as possible. I created a magical space-time, within which I practiced the runic staðas. After that period the contact with the runes was being established. However, selfdiscipline, condition and endurance are required to get through such observances. The best way is to create an individual schedule, which fits your needs. I am measuring the duration of a staða in breaths, during which I sing the galdr. Average durations are between four and eight breaths. Marby suggests to start runic gymnastics with the position of ,which is to be held for fifteen minutes before actually starting to practice other staðas. Until now I don´t know any english translation of Marbys works - so you have to learn german, to read about his discoveries. 

Assume the recommended runic postures and sing the name of the runes in a non-exhaustive way that you can feel your body vibrating - in magic literature it is called vibrating. It could be that you can hear overtones clearer as usual during vibrating. Take this as a good sign. You are visualizing the rune with your inner eye, as its form is being represented by your body and the energies are flowing through your body. Before practicing a rune it is recommended to know everything on the powers of the rune you want to practice. The flow of energy is different for each rune, a field of research for your sensitivity. 
The mudras are effective only after you have anchored the runes in your own aura and body. They can be made silent and unobtrusive. 
The inner centre must be kept up the whole time while moving and visualizing. Otherwise the whole exercise is just moving without knowledge and perhaps dangerous, too. With runic walking you develop an own Tai Chi form with twenty-four important elements, which can be used in unarmed combat, too. 

Phenomenons, occuring during runic yoga:
Cramps, convulsions and spasms are a sign of opening channels. The body regains the ability of free flowing energy. Let them happen, it is healthy.
Tingling and the feeling of pins and needles in the extremities or the body is a sign of flowing energies. If it becomes too much, stop the exercise and ground the energies.
Shaking is perhaps a sign of a beginning seið-trance (see Jan Fries: Seidhways)
Swaying shows that the body is attuning to the energies. Mstr. Amenophis from the Fraternitas Saturni gave the advice to follow the movement and to dance the rune with it.
Warm sweat is sign of cleansing processes and heating of the body.
Cold sweat is a sign of a circulatory disturbance. Stop immediately.
Yawning and belching are mechanisms of removing stagnating Qi. Increased bowel functions serve this ends, too. If these things don´t stop later on, visit a doctor.

After finishing Stadhagaldr, or after each rune, massage the energies first in the ear-lobes and the ear conch, behind the ears, then in the face and the neck and then in the rest of the body. Concentrate the surplus energies in the Dantien or Hara (see Mantak Chias works on Tao Yoga!). 
The shown postures and Mudras are ideas and impulsees of developing your own approach to the runes. Today I use different postures and Mudras. Everything is in constant movement and development. Otherwise it would be not alive. The galdrs are completely free in useage, that means its up to you, whether you sing "f f f f f f f" or "ffffeeeehhuuuu" or something else for the rune fehu (for example). If you have own ones - use them! 

Terms in Stadhagaldr practice:
Stádha – body postures or assanas
Galdr – incantations or mantras
Orindi – breathing techniques (there is 5 techniques: Trell, Karl, Herse, Jarl and Konge)
Hugr – control of emotions
Mund – hand postures or mudras
Haidr – reaching the bliss during practice, control of personal will